IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v13y2023i1p206-d1035655.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Prediction of Single Disc Seeding System Forces, Using a Semi-Analytical and Discrete Element Method (DEM)

Author

Listed:
  • Ali Khosravani

    (UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia)

  • Jacky M. A. Desbiolles

    (UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia)

  • John M. Fielke

    (UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia)

  • Mustafa Ucgul

    (Faculty of Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW 2084, Australia)

  • Chris Saunders

    (UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia)

Abstract

There is a rising interest amongst Australian farmers to use disc seeders due to their ability to operate in high residue conditions and at higher speeds, commonly in the range of 12 to 15 km h −1 . This paper reports on developing an analytical and discrete element method (DEM) force prediction model suited to a rotating flat disc blade operating at different sweep and tilt angles. To validate the models, field experiments were carried out with a flat disc blade at two tilt angles of 0 and 20° and four sweep angles of 6, 26, 45 and 90° in sandy soil. An analytical approach was developed following an experimental investigation that showed that only the forward portion of the disc blade is actively involved in generating soil failure, while the magnitude of this active portion of the soil-disc interface varied with sweep angle. The predicted active proportions correlated well with the experimental observations. As applying different sweep angles affects the direction of soil movement relative to the disc face, the directions of the friction and resultant forces at different sweep and tilt angles were determined. The equation of soil acceleration force was adapted to account for different sweep angles. Results showed that the predicted force fits relatively well with the measured data at 90, 45 and 26° sweep angle, while the low correlation between predicted and measured force at 6° sweep angle was due to the scrubbing reaction force not accounted for in the model. Results also showed that a better coefficient of determination (R 2 = 0.93) was obtained between DEM vs. test results compared to the analytical model predictions (R 2 = 0.86), particularly for predicting side forces. It was found from the study that both the developed analytical approach and DEM model enabled the prediction of soil forces at different sweep and tilt angles acting on a flat disc blade, which can assist in optimising disc design to lower the specific resistance.

Suggested Citation

  • Ali Khosravani & Jacky M. A. Desbiolles & John M. Fielke & Mustafa Ucgul & Chris Saunders, 2023. "Prediction of Single Disc Seeding System Forces, Using a Semi-Analytical and Discrete Element Method (DEM)," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:1:p:206-:d:1035655
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/1/206/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/1/206/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mustafa Ucgul & Chung-Liang Chang, 2023. "Design and Application of Agricultural Equipment in Tillage Systems," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-3, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:1:p:206-:d:1035655. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.